In a pretty big departure from my usual articles, I will be taking over the weekly metagame report for the time being with (I hope) some occasional more in-depth pieces on analysis/theory/life stories. The column’s focus is on the Standard metagame (and in the week before non-Standard Constructed Grands Prix (GP), we’ll take a look at those as well) and its development across both Magic Online and the SCG Open circuit.

• The Magic Online metagame is significantly different than the live metagame for reasons such as card availability and lower rewards for innovation.
• The data available from Magic Online is much larger than that available from live events, so the metagame online evolves much faster and is more inbred than the metagame in live events.

The difficulty in any article series such as this is that the metagame represented by posted results is the metagame of winning decks and does not include decks that are widely played but perform poorly. In the future, I will try my best to include a picture of the overall metagame by recording the overall results of a few Daily Events, but due to time constraints, I didn’t get around to it this week.

I think the best general structure for this article is to post a picture of the metagame (both live and online) and then provide lists for the most prevalent archetypes along with a more specific focus on one deck for the week. If you have anything else you’d like to see, please say so in the comments, and I’ll try to incorporate your suggestions into future editions.

Pro Tour Qualifier Top 8s

SCG Ohio

Magic Online

Yeah, Delver is good, and there’s no reason to not be playing it; I wish there were something more interesting to say, but it’s essentially Caw-Blade all over again. Delver is winning everything, crushing Magic Online, and being just by far the best deck in terms of performance. So if you plan on playing Standard (at least until Ponder is banned), play Delver or Grixis/Esper (as they’re both good against the newer versions of Devler with Restoration Angel).

Notable Decks

"Reanimator"

• Creatures (17)
• 2 Inferno Titan
• 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 3 Wurmcoil Engine
• 1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 3 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded

• Spells (16)
• 4 Faithless Looting
• 4 Lingering Souls
• 4 Mulch
• 4 Unburial Rites

• Lands (24)
• 1 Plains
• 5 Forest
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Slayers' Stronghold
• 4 Blackcleave Cliffs
• 4 Copperline Gorge
• 4 Razorverge Thicket
• 4 Shimmering Grotto

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1 Griselbrand
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 3 Purify the Grave
• 2 Ray of Revelation
• 2 Sever the Bloodline
• 3 Zealous Conscripts [/Sideboard]

Buy This Deck

"Zombies"

• Creatures (26)
• 4 Diregraf Ghoul
• 4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
• 4 Geralf's Messenger
• 4 Gravecrawler
• 4 Stormblood Berserker
• 4 Treacherous Pit-Dweller
• 2 Phyrexian Metamorph

• Spells (10)
• 3 Brimstone Volley
• 3 Gut Shot
• 4 Tragic Slip

• Lands (24)
• 14 Swamp
• 2 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Blackcleave Cliffs
• 4 Dragonskull Summit

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Arc Trail
• 2 Doom Blade
• 1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
• 2 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Sever the Bloodline
• 2 Sorin's Thirst
• 2 Sword of War and Peace
• 2 Zealous Conscripts

Buy This Deck

"U/R Control"

• Creatures (7)
• 3 Frost Titan
• 4 Fettergeist

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

• Spells (25)
• 1 Incinerate
• 1 Think Twice
• 4 Desperate Ravings
• 4 Mana Leak
• 1 Temporal Mastery
• 2 Bonfire of the Damned
• 2 Red Sun's Zenith
• 2 Whipflare
• 4 Pillar of Flame
• 4 Ponder

• Lands (25)
• 6 Mountain
• 8 Island
• 3 Desolate Lighthouse
• 4 Evolving Wilds
• 4 Sulfur Falls

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Consecrated Sphinx
• 1 Dissipate
• 2 Dungeon Geists
• 1 Negate
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Shatter
• 2 Slagstorm
• 2 Steel Sabotage
• 2 Surgical Extraction
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine [/Sideboard]

Buy This Deck

Deck of the week

"Delver"

• Creatures (14)
• 3 Restoration Angel
• 4 Delver of Secrets
• 4 Snapcaster Mage
• 3 Geist of Saint Traft

• Spells (24)
• 1 Dismember
• 1 Divine Offering
• 1 Mutagenic Growth
• 1 Thought Scour
• 2 Gut Shot
• 3 Mana Leak
• 4 Vapor Snag
• 4 Gitaxian Probe
• 4 Ponder
• 1 Sword of War and Peace
• 2 Sword of Feast and Famine

• Lands (22)
• 2 Plains
• 9 Island
• 3 Moorland Haunt
• 4 Glacial Fortress
• 4 Seachrome Coast

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Batterskull
• 2 Celestial Purge
• 2 Consecrated Sphinx
• 2 Day of Judgment
• 1 Dissipate
• 1 Divine Offering
• 2 Phantasmal Image
• 1 Sword of War and Peace
• 3 Timely Reinforcements

Buy This Deck

Just play this. The deck has developed to a point that the metagame will most likely begin to become inbred as the Delver decks compete to be the best in the mirror, and in doing so, they might open some space in the metagame. I wish Standard was more interesting, but ummm, a W/U aggro-control deck is good again, so there’s not much else to say. Restoration Angel essentially singlehandedly shored up the match against R/G aggro, and the inclusion of Sword of Feast and Famine has made up for Ramp players gaining Cavern of Souls.

Chris Mascioli

@dieplstks on Twitter